Holy Cow! She took a Bottle

I have such a hard time believing that a 3-month-old can be so stubborn and already set in her ways that when she decides she doesn't want a bottle, the bottle strike will last for 16 days! Well, that is what has happened here in Morgan's world! And yes, I took a picture of it to document the unbelievable feat that happened during lunch today. (Plus, when she decides tomorrow to NOT take it again, I want proof that I wasn't hallucinating and to prove it to my lovely husband who definitely will not believe it unless he sees pictures!) After all the crying (not sure how many hours of it, I lost track the first day) and frustration we have gone through in order to get her to even suck on the bottle for a second, today's accomplishment is a huge relief for us all. All I kept thinking about was how I would have to plan every outing around Morgan's eating schedule and in all honesty, it didn't sound like too much fun. I am probably getting too excited for nothing, because tomorrow is a new day and she may refuse it all over again, but at least her projectile spitting up is over. That was a real treat all last week. We even had a lovely incident at the YMCA when I was walking her into Kids Corner (so I could take a class)....she spit up all over herself and me. What a mess! At least I had extra clothes for her....whereas I had to smell it on my shirt for the entire hour and believe me, sweat and spit up don't really mix well. I have never been so ready to go home after a class as I was that day! No one said that parenting was easy and I have to say that every day brings a new challenge but I do love these girls more than anything and every day I think about how lucky I am to have them in my life.

The past week has been kind of boring. Not a lot going on. The big snow predicted for last night missed us (thank god!) and we only got a little dusting, which I will take over 6 inches any day! It was bitterly cold today though and really making me long for Spring. I think every Wisconsin/Northern Illinois family needs a FL or AZ vacation about this time of year just to keep sane! All this snow and cold is enough to make us think seriously about moving to Arizona someday. (J/K!)

So, I have been reading books this winter at a record pace and just finished one that is definitely going down as one of my favorites. It is a memoir by Jen Lancaster called Bright Lights, Big Ass. She lives in Chicago so a lot of the places she talks about were familiar to me, so I highly recommend this book to all of you that have ever lived in the city. It brought back a lot of memories of those crazy years, that is for sure. She also has a hilarious blog that I have been reading and made me decide to list the blogs I look at regularly outside of the friends and family ones I frequent. I hope you enjoy my list and in all actuality, you probably already read some of them. (Perez Hilton, anyone?)

Well, I am off to get my baby girl that finally decided to wake up after a 2 1/2 hour nap! I certainly can't complain about her sleeping, which to me is the most important thing we have!

She finally did it!

Addyson can finally say she went on the big potty! It has only happened once, but to me that is a start! She has been begging me to let her wear underwear every day, but with all the accidents and never actually going in the potty, it was so hard for me to let her continue to pee on the floor! Tonight she wore underwear and after all my begging and pleading with her to just try the potty, she did and actually peed in it. We were both so excited about it. She almost started crying when she did it. I think it was the excitement and the realization that it isn't as scary as she once thought. Needless to say, she got to put on her tutu that she has been staring at for the last few weeks. And after I put her to bed tonight, I noticed her light was on in her room and when I went in there, she was putting the tutu back on, so I am letting her sleep in it. She promised me that she would go in the potty again tomorrow so that she would not have to wear diapers anymore but we will see if that really happens or not. Once we get this mastered, the only thing I have left to work on is Morgan and her bottle. She still won't drink from one and I have even enlisted Addyson's help in trying to get her to take it. The pictures show how sweet Addyson is with her sister (on most days - haha!), and she tried for about 20 minutes even wiping Morgan's face when the bottle slipped out of her mouth a few times. Needless to say it did not work, but at least Addyson gave it a shot. She has been wanting to feed her baby sister since she was born, so I am sure it was a thrill for her to get to try it tonight.

Kaylee's 1st Birthday Party

So, it is Sunday and it is snowing! (Big Shock, right?) It rained all day today and now it has turned to snow. I don't know what is worse.......getting all that rain that turned the roads and driveways to slush and now ice, or getting 10 more inches of snow...either way, this weather really sucks! Yesterday was Kaylee's 1st Birthday party. Addyson got to see her Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Kenny (Henny is what she calls him). She was pretty excited to go to the birthday party and talked about it all day which lead to a short nap and then a sleepy girl when we got home. Kaylee got a lot of presents and Aunt Diana and Uncle Bob got her an Elmo ice cream cake which was really good. It was great to see our family, but because of the bad weather today, the visit was cut short. Grandma and Grandpa had to get back to IL early this morning to beat all the freezing rain and snow they would have hit along the way if they would have waited and we all know they HAD to be back to watch the Daytona 500. hehe!

Right now, Addyson insists that she is a big girl and is trying underwear but I am sure it will result in an accident soon and back to diapers she will go....we will keep you all updated. I have until Labor Day to get her trained. :O) And as for Morgan and the bottle???? She still won't take it. If anyone has a suggestion as to how to get her to take it, I am all ears! We have tried different bottles, warming the nipple, bouncing her as we give it to her, different positions while feeding her, and I have even left the house while she is being fed and nothing has worked! This is one battle that I will win. I don't know how I feel about having her attached to my hip for another 9 months so to speak. I have faith that it will all work out. It all seems to eventually anyway.

Addyson and Morgan went to their playgroup's Valentine's Day party on Wednesday. It was a little chaotic but all the kids had so much fun. Kudos to the hostess, Debora, who planned a fantastic party and allowed about 25 kids to "go wild" in her home. They exchanged valentines, ate lunch, and got to make a very cute heart craft for their dads. Above are some pictures from the festivities. Notice how tired Morgan looks....she may not take after her "party girl" sister after all. :O)

Another Day....More SNOW

As I write this, it is snowing yet AGAIN! It has been snowing since early this morning. I have been up since 6AM and it was snowing at that time so who knows when it started. And of course I had to go out in it twice today but it ended up being worth the drive because I was able to get Addyson into the preschool I was hoping to enroll her in. She was number 38 out of 40 students so it was a close call but she got in! Now the big job of getting her potty trained before September is in the back of my mind. She is still resistant to it but everyone tells me to just let her decide when and it will make it easier on everyone. So, hopefully, it will be soon considering she is 3 in about 8 weeks. Hard to imagine, I know! Yesterday, our playgroup went to McDonald's and the kids played on the playground which was good for Addyson because she had not seen a lot of the kids since before Morgan was born. I didn't realize how much she missed her friends. She talked about Maggie and Lucie for the rest of the day. We will start getting out more often now that Morgan is 11 weeks old. Tomorrow is the Valentine's day party so I hope to get some good pictures that I can post. Until then, stay warm!

Snowy Day

Wow! Now, I know that all my life we have had bouts of snow but today seemed really bad. I guess because Tim had to close his branch, it made it seem like we were getting a lot more. I believe we got around 12 inches, but with the drifting snow, it makes it hard to tell for sure. Addyson wanted to play in it so bad but with Tim working and me having to watch Morgan she didn't get to go outside today. Saturday may be a better day for her to play in it. Hopefully, Morgan will be walking next year at this time, so I can take both girls out in the snow....if we get this much again. I think this is starting to be a record year for this area with snowfall totals. This is a picture of our backyard but it doesn't give the snow storm justice....I just want Spring to get here! Don't we all?

So on Sunday, the Antholines came over for the Superbowl. Kaylee was starting to take a lot of steps by herself and I got to see her take 5 in a row. That was exciting. It reminded me so much of Addyson when she first started walking. Can you believe that was almost 2 years ago? These kids are growing up so fast. A year is going to flash before my eyes and Morgan is going to be trying to walk. Right now, though, it is really hard to imagine. Morgan is starting to push herself up with her arms when we give her tummy time so I am pretty happy about that. Addyson and I root her on and she seems to like that. Morgan is still sleeping well and actually slept 12 hours the other night getting up only once and after 8 hours of sleep. It feels so good to get sleep again! The first 8 weeks seem like a lifetime ago. She seems to be struggling with the bottle but we continue to work with it every day so we can have some flexibility with her in the future. Sometimes a mom needs to go somewhere without the kids, right? :O)

I took Addyson to a preschool on Monday in the hopes that it would motivate her to potty train. She loved the place and went right in the room and started doing the stuff with the kids that were in class. She was hard to convince to leave. After we left, she said she needs to go on the big potty so she can go to school but once we got home, it was a no-go! Now she tells me that she will try it when she gets bigger. I am raising one stubborn child! Everyone tells me that it just sort of clicks with children and one of these days she will want to do it and it will only take a few days to get it done. Gosh, I hope they are right. It is so frustrating.